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Title: BESNOITIA ORYCTOFELISI N. SP. (PROTOZOA: APICOMPLEXA) FROM DOMESTIC RABBITS

Author
item Dubey, Jitender
item SREEKUMAR, C - 1265-40-00
item LINDSAY, DAVID - VIRGINIA TECH
item Hill, Dolores
item Rosenthal, Benjamin
item VENTURINI, L - UNIV NAC'L DE LA PLATA
item VENTURINI, M - UNIV NAC'L DE LA PLATA
item GREINER, E - UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA

Submitted to: Parasitology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/21/2003
Publication Date: 2/27/2003
Citation: DUBEY, J.P., SREEKUMAR, C., LINDSAY, D.S., HILL, D.E., ROSENTHAL, B.M., VENTURINI, L., VENTURINI, M.C., GREINER, E.C. 2003.BESNOITIA ORYCTOFELISI N. SP. (PROTOZOA: APICOMPLEXA) FROM DOMESTIC RABBITS. PARASITOLOGY 126:521-539.

Interpretive Summary: Parasites of the genus Besnoitia are single celled parasites. Certain species of Besnoitia cause infertility and morbidity in livestock. Scientists at the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center report a new species of Besnoitia, B. oryctofelisi from rabbits. The results will be of interest to biologists, parasitologists and pathologists.

Technical Abstract: A species of Besnoitia from naturally infected rabbits from Argentina was propagated experimentally in mice, gerbils, rabbits, cats, and cell cultures. Cats fed tissue cysts from rabbits shed oocysts with a prepatent period of nine to 13 days. Sporulated oocysts were infective to gerbils, rabbits, outbred Swiss Webster and interferon gamma gene knockout mice. Bradyzoits were infective orally to gerbils and cats. Tachyzoites were successfully cultivated and maintained in vitro in bovine monocytes and African green monkey kidney cells. Schizonts were seen in the lamina propria of the small intestine of cats fed tissue cysts; the largest ones measured 52 x 45 um. Schizonts were also present in mesenteric lymph nodes, livers, and other extra-intestinal organs of cats fed tissue cysts. Oocysts were 10-14 x 10-13 um in size. This rabbit-derived species of Besnoitia resembled B. darlingi of the North American opossum, Didelphis virginiana with an opossum-cat cycle, but it was not transmissible to D. virginiana, and B. darlingi of opossums was not transmissible to rabbits. Based on biologic, serologic, antigenic, and molecular differences between the rabbit and the opossum Besnoitia, a new name, B. oryctofelisi is proposed for the parasite from domestic rabbits from Argentina.